


Falling

by paralogism



Series: Nozomi power, hai pushu! [2]
Category: Love Live! School Idol Project
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, Spiritual Power, it went meta
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-04
Updated: 2016-11-11
Packaged: 2018-08-29 00:20:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8468593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paralogism/pseuds/paralogism
Summary: In which Nozomi is God (again), Maki is an angel and Nico is a devil in the worst kind of Hell. ‘Spiritual’ successor to that other one, except less funny.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I was very rudely interrupted from writing this by university exams, which gave me the time to think over things and jot down a few ideas. I’m not sure if I’ll prefer doing this, but I’ll post the opening for now while I select the rest of the ideas to fit in with the plot I already wrote before. Oh, and happy belated Halloween!

‘Tell me about the fallen angel, Nozomi.’

Nozomi looked up in surprise from the cards she was playing with. ‘Where did you hear about that, Maki-chan?’

‘I heard Rin and the others talking about her, and I was kind of curious.’

‘It’s a long story, Maki-chan.’

‘I don’t care.’

Nozomi looked into the sharp eyes of the other girl and heaved a sigh. ‘You always were stubborn, weren’t you?’ She turned to a small smile, however. ‘I guess I can tell you. I am God after all, so I do know more than most about it.’ She motioned for Maki to take a seat at the wooden table atop the clouds and the winged girl obliged.

Maki Nishikino was an angel. So much was obvious from looking at her: red hair and purple eyes have never been common human genetic traits, and neither were the white wings she possessed, which spanned past the sleeveless shoulders of her white dress.

Nozomi Tojo was a goddess. She was similarly distinguishable from the ranks of humanity via her natural purple hair and green eyes with a constant shimmer. She controlled the heavens with her spiritual power, with her angels acting to carry out her divine wishes. She drew a breath to begin the conversation.

‘Her name was Nico,’ the goddess began, ‘and she was a very good friend of mine.’

‘Was?’

‘Yeah. I haven’t seen her in years, and she probably resents me right now. Not that I blame her, after what happened.’ Maki gave an expectant look, so Nozomi continued. ‘She was one of my favourite angels, but she was too forthright. Too strong-willed. Some of the other angels came to detest her when she wouldn’t do what they wanted.’

Nozomi rested her arm on the table and propped her forehead. The recollection still pained her. ‘We couldn’t protect her, Maki-chan. Both Elicchi and I. The other angels turned on her, and we didn’t notice until it was too late. She had already fallen. Even now, that is my biggest regret.’

Maki was curious. ‘What did you do with the other angels?’

‘I banished them.’

‘Banished them?’

‘Yeah, to being regular humans. I figured that was punishment enough.’ Maki nodded in agreement. ‘I seem to remember one of them being called Yoh- something? Well, they’re better off forgotten in any case.’ Nozomi now formed a regretful expression. ‘However, Nicocchi was different from all the others. She fell further than the other angels.’

Maki blinked in non-comprehension. ‘What does that mean?’

‘She’s…’ Nozomi hesitated and gave a small fidget. Unfortunately for her, there was no other way to phrase the answer. ‘She’s the devil now, Maki-chan.’

Maki gasped. That was one detail that the other angels hadn’t told her. ‘The devil was an angel? Like me and the others?’ Nozomi nodded.

‘That’s so sad, Nozomi.’ Maki said in a hushed voice.

‘It is.’ Nozomi held Maki’s hand within her own to comfort her.

Maki blinked a few times to force a stray tear from her eye. ‘Why did she fall further than the others, Nozomi?’

Nozomi shook her head sadly. ‘I’m sorry, Maki-chan. I wish I knew the answer.’

‘Nozomi…’ Maki was struck by the wistful look remaining on Nozomi’s face. It was out of character for someone usually so vibrant, playful and full of joy, even if she did take a bit too much pleasure out of teasing her and the other angels.

Whilst Maki was preoccupied with her thoughts, she didn’t notice the glint which struck in Nozomi’s eyes as she came to a realisation of her own. All this time, she had only ever looked at things from her own perspective, regretting her own mistakes. Perhaps Maki would be able to see things in a new light. She was different, even amongst the angels. She was kind, yet aloof. Sharp, yet naïve.

‘Still, it’s one thing to pity her. Do you think that you could’ve changed things, Maki-chan?’

‘Well, I…’ Maki hesitated, before Nozomi clapped a hand to her forehead as if she had forgotten something obvious.

‘Sorry, that was stupid of me. That’s not a question I should be asking of you. That’s what the cards are for, after all.’

Maki watched in bewilderment as Nozomi gave the deck a practiced shuffle, before drawing the first card for herself to see. She smiled. ‘Would you look at that? As expected of Maki-chan.’

Maki was still confused. ‘What is?’

‘You shouldn’t worry.’ Nozomi buried the card within the deck before Maki could react, causing Maki to give an annoyed ‘tch!’. Nozomi giggled at her frustration.

‘I guess it can’t be helped, then. I should send you on your way.’

‘Huh? Where?’ Maki had a feeling that things were not about to go well for her.

‘To meet Nico, of course!’

The clouds parted beneath Maki’s feet, as Nozomi also cast a spell to limit Maki’s angelic powers. The angel looked down in horror as she realized all too late what was about to happen. ‘Wait, Nozomi! I never agreed to this!’

Nozomi smiled. ‘Too late.’

‘Nozomiiiiii!’ The angel’s scream faded into the distance as she fell from the heavens.

Nozomi couldn’t help but chuckle at Maki. The angel really should’ve known better. ‘I was going to send you anyway, but drawing that card? Of all of them? You really are something else, Maki-chan.’ She searched through the deck and examined the card she had drawn prior, giving it a fond look. ‘It’s a misunderstood card, The Devil.’

She sighed again. The passage of time had done nothing to displace the hurt she still felt. ‘You were the one who suffered most, Nicocchi. I wasn’t there for you when it happened, and you didn’t deserve any of it. I’m sorry that I can’t be the one to reach out to you. But hopefully, somebody else can.’

She took one final glance at the clouds as they began to knit themselves back together. ‘Good luck, Maki-chan. I’m sure that you can figure out Nicocchi better than the rest of us ever could.’

* * *

Nico Yazawa was a devil. Her eyes had turned red and her ribboned twin-tails had formed upwards into horns. She was also quite surprised as a screaming angel came crashing from the heavens to land on her whilst she was stitching some clothing.

‘What the actual hell just landed on me?’

Maki writhed in pain from the heavy impact. ‘Why did I have to land on something hard and flat?’

‘Who are you calling flat?! In fact, who are you in the first place?’

‘Ah.’ Maki stopped convulsing to look at the girl who was lying beneath her for some reason. She quickly jolted off of that person. ‘I’m sorry!’

‘You should be,’ seethed the other girl in annoyance.

‘I’m Maki Nishikino.’ She bowed a polite greeting, ignoring the pain in her entire body. ‘I’m an angel.’

‘Angel?’ Nico asked in disbelief before she managed to put all the pieces together. ‘Nozomi! You haven’t changed, you meddling, yuri idiot!’

‘Yuri?’ Maki asked curiously.

‘You don’t want to know what I’ve seen her and Eli do. Trust me.’

Maki noted that the girl knew both Nozomi and Eli, the current archangel. She couldn’t hide her surprise in asking, ‘Are you Nico-chan?’

Nico was taken aback at having her name used by someone else. It had been years since that last happened for her. ‘Yes.’

‘You’re the devil?’

‘Of course I am.’

‘But…’

‘But what?’ Nico asked in irritation.

‘You don’t look like one.’

Nico couldn’t help but become flustered. ‘W-What’s that meant to mean?’

Maki crossed her arms. ‘Aren’t devils meant to be intimidating? You just look kind of cute, Nico-chan.’

‘C-Cute?’ Nico stammered from the unexpected compliment. That was before her devilish ego kicked in. ‘Wait, only kind of?’

‘You’d look cuter in an angel outfit,’ Maki said pointedly, referring to the black fabric corset which was nicely matched to Nico’s small wings, although it had some tatters from use.

Nico scowled, ‘I’m sorry that we don’t get the best fashion supplies in Hell.’

‘Ah.’ Maki had been so busy apologising that she hadn’t realised that she was, in fact, currently in Hell. She took a closer look at her surroundings, before giving a gasp of surprise. It certainly didn’t look like what she had been told. ‘This is Hell?’ she asked incredulously.

‘Not quite. I should've been clearer before,’ said Nico as she made a mischievous grin. ‘Welcome to Idol Hell, Maki-chan!’


	2. Welcome to Idol Hell

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Idol Hell is real, and the Devil (aka Nico) is its main resident.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no idea what I'm doing anymore.

‘Sorry, I’m going to need a few moments to process this.’ Maki closed her eyes and gave a weary rub of her forehead. She had been having a rough day; falling from heaven and whatnot. ‘So why, exactly, is this “Idol Hell”, Nico-chan?’

Nico answered happily, ‘Well, a devil needs to live in Hell, right? So Idol Hell makes a fitting stage for the number one demon idol in the universe, Nico Yazawa!’

Maki made an unimpressed hum. ‘Is there really that much competition?’

‘Not really, no.’ Nico made a face and stuck her tongue out. ‘Way to be a spoilsport, Maki-chan.’

Maki didn’t respond, instead wondering how her conception of Hell could have been so far off.

It seemed that the devil had some unexpected hobbies. The first clue of this was where they were currently standing: a large stage, littered with various small props lying across its floor, as well as the desk and chair Nico had been working upon. Maki caught sight of a megaphone with white fur around its bell, a plastic carrot and bunny ears as standing out in particular, being stationed near a microphone stand at centre stage.

A much bigger clue came from looking slightly beyond that. The room’s illumination reflected across several large display cabinets filled with an impossible amount of idol figures and special edition blu-rays (still in the original packaging, of course). The pink walls of the room were plastered with posters and tapestries, with a special section in one corner of the room reserved for plush nesoberis of all sizes haphazardly stacked atop each other.

At the back of the room, there was a small projector playing an idol concert. Several glowsticks were sprawled on the floor in front, with Maki confused as to why there were many of the disposable orange type.

As for the other far corner of the room, Maki felt a strange sense of dread crawl across her spine. Despite her feeling of extreme reluctance, she pointed and asked, ‘Nico-chan, what is that… thing?’

Nico blinked in genuine confusion. ‘You’ve never seen a shrine before?’

Maki shook her head. ‘Firstly, I’ve never seen a shrine like that. Secondly, I’ve never seen a shrine to Tsubasa-san from A-RISE.’

A signed and framed picture of Tsubasa placed on a pedestal was surrounded by several cutouts of A-RISE. Just beside, a special display cabinet proudly housed one of Tsubasa’s black berets, as well as a signed autograph board. What caused most of Maki’s discomfort was the large pentagram of candles and Tsubasa keychains arranged in front of that.

Nico’s eyes became delirious. ‘Tsubasa-sama is so cute and amazing though! Of course Nico would make offerings to her idol shrine.’

Maki wisely chose to ignore that last bit. She opted to change the topic instead, taking another look at the concert that was playing. The large audience switched cyalume colours from orange to both red and pink, and her ears perked at the music. ‘What’s this song? It sounds familiar somehow…’

‘Zurui no Magnetic Today,’ the devil responded. ‘I’ve tried singing it by myself, but it really is meant to be sung with a partner.’

It certainly wasn’t a bad song, and Maki found herself tapping her foot to the rhythm. ‘In Heaven, Nozomi plays Garasu no Hanazono on repeat.’

Nico made a gagging sound. ‘That’s worse than any Hell.’ She quickly switched to an excited smile. ‘If you’ve heard that, do you know Aqours? My SIF account is pretty sweet! Even if I did have to spend hours tiering.’

The game was popular amongst the angels. Maki didn’t play that much, but she knew that Hanayo was heavily committed. Still, she had enough knowledge to know that angels didn’t usually participate in the events. ‘Don’t you feel bad for those humans? We have much better reflexes than them.’

‘I would,’ Nico replied, ‘except for the fact that I have terrible luck with scouting. So I figure that makes us even. See, I’ll show you.’ Nico retrieved her phone from the table, flipping open its case, where the game was already running. She had enough love gems to make a 10+1 scout, and grimaced at the result. ‘Told you. Nothing decent.’

Maki glanced at the screen from Nico's side. ‘Wait, that’s a UR, isn’t it?’

‘Yeah, but this one is awful.’ The devil shook her head in frustration. ‘To think that she'd become an idol after, and then flaunt about being a fallen angel. So annoying.’

What was her name again? Yoh… something? Perhaps that was what Nozomi was referencing when she said that those two had a history.

Maki caught sight of a stack of magazines placed inconspicuously to the side of one of the cabinets, and couldn’t suppress her curiosity. ‘What’s this?’ she asked, grabbing one from the middle of the pile.

Nico paled as she realised what Maki was about to uncover. That was not a sight meant for pure angels. ‘Maki-chan, no!’

Maki’s face turned red as she opened the small book to a random page, giving a high-pitched squeal. ‘W-What the hell is this, Nico-chan?!’

The devil covered her face with her hands. ‘I-It’s my doujinshi collection…’ She quickly tugged the book out of the angel’s hands, who simply stood in shock with her mouth agape. ‘It’s sin, even for a devil.’

Maki had seen things that she never bargained for on that page, and her eyes shone with amazed enlightenment. ‘Can girls really do that to each other?’

Nico groaned. ‘We are not having that conversation, so I’ll change the subject. What do you think of this place, Maki-chan?’

There were several things Maki wanted to ask in response. Amongst them were ‘Does anyone really need all those clear files?’ and ‘Do you even have things to pin those badges on?’ The question she decided to ask, however, was ‘Where did you get the money for all this, Nico-chan?’

Nico was caught off-guard and stammered, ‘U-Ummm…’

The angel crossed her arms. ‘Nico-chan.’ The devil shifted her gaze and gave an innocent whistle. Maki didn’t miss the decidedly guilty expression she was making.

Nico might have been a devil, but she still had a soul, even if some of it had been lost to Idol Hell. And what remained of that soul was being crushed by Maki’s look of pure disappointment. She owned up after a few painful minutes of the angel’s glare. ‘Okay, I might have enchanted my webcam so people would donate to my NicoNico stream.’

‘Nico-chan.’ Maki’s look went from disappointment to mild disgust, causing the devil to flail for a response.

‘I only did it once, Maki-chan! I regretted it straight after. Nico-Nii has enough talent and followers to run her channel successfully now. People even make figures of Nico. See?’ She pointed at the display cabinet at the centre of the room. It was true enough, but Maki found herself with a different question.

‘You buy figures of yourself, Nico-chan?’

Nico smiled. ‘It’s super cute, like me.’

Maki’s disgust returned for a different reason. ‘Gross.’

‘Oi!’

Ignoring the stamping and shouts of exasperation the devil made, Maki noticed that some of the paint on the walls looked fresher than the others. ‘Are you redecorating, Nico-chan?’

Nico shrugged. ‘Trying to. Getting the proper amount of paint is difficult, because not many people deliver to Idol Hell.’

‘Then how did you get all this,’ Maki waved her arm, gesturing at pretty much everything within eyesight, ‘stuff?’

‘There’s a special delivery service for the merch. They’re used to Idol Hell, apparently.’ The devil sighed. ‘I wish they’d deliver other things sometimes. Nico-Nii is running out of materials to make her cute outfits, as you so rudely noticed.’

‘I’m sorry,’ replied the angel, although she really wasn’t. Nico pouted at the obvious lack of contrition being shown. Still, Maki was intrigued, even after her prior experience. ‘What else don’t you get in Idol Hell?’

‘You have to pay for drinking water and you need to cook for yourself,’ Nico lamented. ‘However, we do get a good wi-fi connection and Netflix.’

‘So just the bare necessities then?’ The angel sighed. ‘I’m starting to miss Heaven.’

Nico understood her frustration, being a resident of both places. Still, having her precious home being mocked was too much for her not feel insulted.

‘You’re being incredibly annoying, Maki-chan. Landing on me and then making fun of my place.’ She made the demonic symbol with both hands before giving her signature chant to channel her powers. ‘Nico Nico Nii!’

Maki felt her strength leaving her body, and began to shake as if she were freezing. She took an apprehensive look at the other girl, anxiously asking, ‘W-What did you just do to me, Nico-chan?’

The devil shrugged. ‘I cast a seal on you, Maki-chan. I’m just as powerful as Nozomi now.  I was just going to return you to Heaven straight away, but I guess I’ll have my fun with you after all.’

‘W-What kind of fun?’ Maki asked with hesitation. The thought of those doujins was still on her mind.

Nico strutted over before placing a hand to Maki’s chin, forcing it downwards to meet her upturned gaze. She smirked in satisfaction as the taller girl flinched from her touch.

‘We’ll keep it G rated, Maki-chan.’ The devil paused for a moment, shifting her head to take her first proper look over the startled angel.

Tall. Slender. Absolute perfect proportions, and such a pretty face. Nico had a second thought and gulped. ‘For now, anyway.’


End file.
